1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic devices that determine their Global Position System (xe2x80x9cGPSxe2x80x9d) coordinates. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and apparatus for acquiring and sharing GPS position data with other devices via a network.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Location aware devices utilizing GPS devices are known in the art. The GPS devices are utilized to determine the position of the location aware device. A GPS device typically acquires the exact GPS coordinates (degrees longitude, degrees latitude, etc.) of the GPS device. However, GPS coordinates are often useful to devices which do not have a GPS device.
In a situation where a user of a computer or a Personal Digital Assistant (xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9d) desires to determine the approximate or exact physical location of his computer, the computer or PDA can transmit a wireless signal requesting a location aware device to provide GPS coordinates to the computer. Although the GPS coordinates requested are those of the location aware device, and not the computer or PDA, such information can be useful to the computer or PDA to approximate its GPS position. The location aware device can be an electronic device having GPS coordinates stored in a memory, and typically includes a data transmitter. Wireless technologies have been utilized to transmit GPS coordinates from a location aware device to a computer. However, in some technologies in the art, there is a high cost per byte of data sent via wireless technologies, such as a cellular phone.
It is expensive to transmit data via many wireless technologies, such as Cellular Digital Packet Data (xe2x80x9cCDPDxe2x80x9d) and some older digital technologies utilized by some cellular telephone systems today. Accordingly, it is cost prohibitive to use such wireless technologies to acquire or transmit GPS coordinates.
Current web services application programs allow for automate Internet browsing. For example, such programs can be utilized for business-to-business applications such as buying books. The web services application program can be programmed to purchase books through an Internet bookseller. The web services application program can then access the Internet bookseller""s web site and automatically purchase books. Web services application programs access Internet web pages that are typically only machine-readable. The web services application programs allow business-to-business transactions to occur even if the user-friendly graphical user interface of the regular Internet web site of a retailer has changed.
However, such web services application programs do not utilize GPS coordinates for commercial or other useful purposes. For example, current application programs do not utilize the GPS coordinates of the computer or PDA to track the movement of the computer or PDA and transfer information concerning a business to the computer or PDA based upon its GPS coordinates.
Accordingly, it would be useful if the art would provide for a more inexpensive for a computer or PDA to acquire GPS coordinates via a wireless technology. It would also be beneficial if the GPS coordinates were to be utilized by a web services application program.